Monday, July 30, 2012

And many more Destructions played
In this ghastly masquerade,
All disguised, even to the eyes,
Like bishops, lawyers, peers, or spies.
Last came Anarchy; he rode
On a white horse, splashed with blood;
He was pale even to the lips,
Like Death in the Apocalypse.

PB Shelley - The Masque of Anarchy, 1832

"The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe [..and..] involved music and dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the architectural framing and costumes might be designed by a renowned architect, to present a deferential allegory flattering to the patron." [source]
"The designs [..below..] are from the workshop of Daniel Rabel (1578-1637), the artist responsible for creating costumes for the spectacular entertainments performed by and for the French court. The ballets were based on the social dances of the day, but this was social dance elevated to an elaborate art form which combined choreography with poetry, music, song and pageanty, and included elements of satire and burlesque.

The ballets were enormously popular. Most were given at least three performances and all required a great amount of work from their creators and performers[..] Some professional dancers, actors and singers took part but the majority of the participants were members of the nobility. Many of these aristocratic amateurs were skilled performers, including the King, who adored dancing and devised some of the ballets himself." [source]
The sketches in this post (slightly cropped and lightly background spot-cleaned) are from a suite of about ninety illustrations in a 1620s album by Daniel Rabel, encompassing three ballets: Ballet des Fées de la forêt de Saint Germain, Ballet de la Douairière de Billebahaut and Ballet du Chasteau de Bicêtre.

**ADDIT: La guinteine is the French archaic term for a quintain. A quintain is a jousting dummy training device, hinge-mounted on a wooden pole, and either filled with sandbags, made of a target shield, or, sometimes, holding a human target/training partner. Knights would strike the quintain with their lance and the assembly would rotate away from the horse and rider as they proceeded through. Over time, the practise evolved into something of a game, including bursting containers of water and the tilting at rings. See: here & here. The Joust of the Quintain Festival has been held each year since 1946 in Perugia, Italy. I note that the Carolina Renaissance Fair, over ~6 weekends starting in October, boasts "A Joust to the Death" as part of their program. Charming. [Thanks to Will C & Owen!]

Entrée du Grand Can et de ses suivants

Entry of the Great Can (?)** and his followers

Ballet de la Douairière de Billebahaut

ballet, camel, stage costume, dance

I think Will C is right when he kindly wrote to suggest that Can is most likely a variant of Khan, "perhaps in this case meaning the ruler of Persia, since the character on the camel is wearing a radiance costume, associated in a kind of garbled way with the (non-Muslim) sun imagery of Ahura Mazda."

Note: Jean Rochefort (famous French actor, horse enthusiast and co-author of 'Le Louvre à Cheval' {2011}1; 2) sees something of a chimera in this image, which he refers to as a givaldros: a subtle crossing of giraffe, horse and camel.

Ballet de la Douairière de Billebahaut

ballet, horse (animal), stage costume, costume, dance, saddle

Musique de l'Amérique

Ballet de la Douairière de Billebahaut

"The history of court ballet can be understood as a series of movements toward and against the literary element. After a period (1590-1605) where dancing prevails, the following periods (1610-1620, 1620-1636) saw the development processing romantic themes, and burlesque ballet (the Dowager of Billebahaut, 1626)." [source | outline]

Ballet des Fées des Forêts de Saint Germain (Ballet of the Saint Germain Fairy Forest) is a five act ballet, including 26 stage entries. It was danced by Louis XIII and his entourage at the Louvre in February, 1625. It was illustrated by ~30 drawings (by Daniel Rabel) of mythological, allegorical, exotic and grotesque costumes.

Highly recommended: {pdf warning}'Daniel Rabel and the Grotesque'(2001) by John H Astington IN: Early Theatre - A Journal Associated with the Records of Early English Drama, Vol. 4 Issue 1. It gives a brief account of the influences and genres involved and the way these various elements developed and moved from place to place around Europe. That whole broad subject, covering the origins and propagation of tropes, like caricature and grotesque, is perhaps my favourite aspect of ignorantly delving into art history from the Medieval to Early Modern periods. [more]

Translation from here: "The Ballet Fairy forest of Saint-Germain was danced at the Louvre in February 1625, by Louis XIII himself (in the role of a "valiant fighter") and his court.
It was painted by Henri de Savoie, Duke of Nemours, on texts by the poet René Bordier, with instrumental pieces of dance master Jacques de Belleville and stories of Anthony Boesset, Superintendent of music.
Each creature appears in an allegorical act devoted to him: Guillemine-the-hacking, Fairy of Music; Gillette-the-Hazardeuse, fairy Players, Jacqueline Heard the fairy of the Lame Brains; Alizon-the-snapping, fairy Valor Affairs; Macette la Cabrioleuse, fairy Dance.
This ballet is a brilliant comic and a wealth of machinery."

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

Well, if you want to share about English masques, you're welcome to do so in comments here and if you have links to similar visual material to the above, so much the better. My and this blog's interests run wide and deep, but I tend to develop the interest as a consequence of discovering the visual enticements, as I think is pretty obvious if you wander around this establishment.

I find myself here serendipitously via various web channels and am always delighted. this blog is one of my all time favorite sources for inspiration.thank you whoever you are!!!!stephanie morgan rogers, painter

What a delight to see group pictures from Louis XIII's ballets! I have Margaret McGowan's book on Rabel's designs, but they don't include these. Whatever the political messages underlying the burlesque ballet, it always strikes me that they must have been fun to perform, a pleasure quite different from the English court masques.